Ocean Vuong: Detonation
- Ocean Vuong is a 31-year-old who was born in Saigon, Vietnam. His grandfather was an American soldier for the US Navy and was posted to Vietnam where him and his grandmother met and had three daughters. As a result of this, in his poems he often refers to the Vietnam war as the start of his family. At the age of two him and his family moved to Hartford, Connecticut. Vuong’s father left shortly after their relocation and left him to be raised by all the women of his family.
- I didn’t enjoy the poem because it was hard for me to understand what some of the stanza’s where referring to and I had a hard time interpreting what he truly meant. Such as stanza 6 line 2, where I couldn’t figure out why the names of flowers broke him and where it tied back to with their relationship. Overall I believe the main claim Vuong is trying to achieve relatable as its about the tough relationship he shares with his father and how it’s better him to be away from him. It’s not the best and he feels a sense of relive with him being away but he still sometimes wishes for more, but knows he won’t get anything more and runs away from him.
- I do think the story was effective because when he puts bomb and father in the same lines he emphasizes how problematic their relationship is. the two “bomb” and “father” are becoming more the same due to definition and repetition. He uses repetition with the word father, bomb and night. The bomb can also be symbolic as their relationship could be a ticking time bomb just waiting to detonate.
- Questions:
o Where do you think the names of flowers ties back to?
o How did you interpret his last two lines?
o Why do you think he separates the word Detonation?
o What’s the contrast between day and night? Light is truth.
o How did you guys interpret the joke as?
Reflection
My experience on presenting this piece to the class was nerve wrecking, as I kept coming into class expecting to present, but time would be cut short and I never got the chance. However the process of preparing to present this poem was an experience within itself. I don’t enjoy having to read poems because they could have so many different meaning and I didn’t want to interpret a wrong message. So I went to tutoring and had my tutor teach me how to interpret Voung’s piece, even so I still had a hard time depicting the meaning to his work and I even went as far as too sending him a DM on Instagram (to which I got no response). I enjoyed learning about his history and his life story because it was very intriguing. His father’s relationship is still unknown to me and all I know is that he moved to America, but the poem seems to express the idea that maybe him and his father have had encounters that he runs away from. Overall learning about poems and him himself allowed me to realize that there could be several interpretations to peoples work.O
